While Buying a Padded Jacket

Yesterday I worked up the courage and got myself a new padded jacket. I used to wear a dark-colored long padded jacket from brand N… but from wearing it so long, its warmth had worn off, and it kept dragging on the ground. So I decided to take this opportunity to switch to a shorter padded jacket.

I felt the same way when I bought a comforter last month, but trying to look for a padded jacket online was so exhausting.

The phrase “flood of information” fit perfectly. Countless outdoor brands release similar-looking padded jackets… and even within the same brand, there are more than ten different types. Even if you look at each product’s details one by one, they all seem the same, and it just gets dizzying.

Thinking this wouldn’t do, I decided to just set aside a Saturday and go around looking at various padded jacket brands at the department store.

Trying on padded jackets one by one at the department store was a completely different experience from browsing online. The texture of the outer fabric, the weight and coziness when worn, the color under the lighting… things that were hard to know online, I could grasp instantly with all five senses.

After just 2 hours of looking around padded jackets at the department store, I was able to buy the one I liked best. Meanwhile, even after 3 hours of browsing online, I found it hard to make a decision.

I think experiences in life have a lot in common with buying a padded jacket. In an age of information overload, there’s just too much I could do, and while I agonize over what to do, I end up giving up on deciding and simply choosing not to do anything at all.

At times like that, I don’t want to forget this: that just by trying one thing, you can have an experience completely different—180 degrees different—from the experience of browsing online. That the me who has experienced one thing and the me who hasn’t are completely different people.